The trade question. Fallacies of protection, or the so-called "national policy".

Whenever distress from any cause whatsoever has begun to make itself felt by any considerable class in the community, there is no lack of charlatans ready to persuade the people that they possess some infallible remedy, warranted to cure all the ills that flesh is heir to ; and most assuredly the Protectionist champions of the present day are in nowise behind in proclaiming the universal efficacy of their particular nostrum.What is our Complaint, and what are their Remedies ?Canada, like almost every civilized country in the earth, is laboring just now under temporary depression : that is to srj, her people are poorer than they used to be, -or, at any rate, than they imagined themselves to be ; and by way of remedy it is solemnly proposed to add TEN OR TWELVE MILLION DOLLARS PER ANNUM TO THEIR PRESENT TAXATION !Canada obtains the greater part of her revenue from duties on imports, and she is more or less in financial difficulty because the quantity of these imports has been largely diminished.For remedy, we are told, Let us abolish ail imports or by far the largest portion, and thereby improve our revenue by throwing away two-thirds of it !Then, Canada has expended enormous sums of money in cheapening the transport of goods from one side of the Atlantic to the other ; and she receives but small direct returns for the cost of most of these works.Therefore, the natural remedy, by way of improving matters, is to in- flict a heavy penalty on all persons proposing to bring any return cargoes to this country !Canada possesses extraordinary advantages for certain special pur- suits, more particularly for the production of grain, of cattle, of agri- cultural products generally ; aud she is, by virtue of her position, debarred to a great extent from competing on equal terms in a good many manufactures.Therefore, by way of remedy for existing evils, her people are exhorted to abandon these naturally profitable occupations, and to betake themselves to those branchee of industry in which the odds are from natural causes heavily against them I Lastly, Canada enjoys a reasonably fair and equitable system el taxation, pressing evenly on the whole of the community, and not designed to give any unjust advantage to one class above another.Therefore, let us by all means abolish this system, and intreduoe mod&s ef taxation which will compel every merchant and every manufacturer in the kind to make up his mind that the only sure read to prosperity is TO secure sufficient political influence to have the tariff ARRANGED FOR HIS PARTICULAR BENEFIT.

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